Planned Parenthood CEO dismissive of pro-life views at Georgetown

Pro-life demonstrators gather outside a Planned Parenthood Federation of America talk at Georgetown University in Washington April 20.

WASHINGTON - The controversy over the appearance by the head
of Planned Parenthood at Jesuit-run Georgetown University
April 20 became the background to a standing ovation.

Cecile Richards was greeted warmly by more than 400 students,
most of them women, at Lohrfink Auditorium. In her
introduction, Helen Brosnan, a senior and president of the
Georgetown Lecture Fund, asserted both that "God is
pro-choice" and "I believe that I'm a strong Catholic."

Student Amber Athey, a member of Georgetown Right to Life,
tweeted, "According to head of GU lecture fund, hosting an
abortion provider is 'in the spirit of a Jesuit university.'"

The student-run Georgetown Lecture Fund has examined other
hot topics this spring including sponsoring a talk via Skype
from Russia by national-security whistleblower Edward Snowden
and holding a panel discussion on the Catholic Church's
response to sexual abuse with Dominican Father Thomas Doyle,
a canon lawyer, an advocate for abuse victims and a harsh
critic of the U.S. church, and Washington lawyer Robert
Bennett, who helped prepare a 2004 report on abuse prevention
for the U.S. bishops.

Richards' one-hour appearance, billed as "a conversation,"
earlier had been strongly criticized by Cardinal Donald W.
Wuerl of Washington, who wrote that "students, faculty, and
the community at large are all impoverished, not enriched,
when the institution's Catholic identity is diluted or called
into question by seemingly approving of ideas that are
contrary to moral truth."

The event ran without incident, with only a small protest
outside the auditorium by Georgetown Right to Life, a protest
outside the campus by the Pennsylvania-based American Society
for Tradition, Family and Property, and with heavy security,
including District of Columbia police officers to supplement
campus officers.

Although it was closed to news media and accessible only to
students with university IDs, Planned Parenthood later
released a transcript of Richards' remarks. Much of what
Richards and students said during a brief question-and-answer
session was relayed through occasional tweets, including how
well the CEO was received, and Students for Life also
released a transcript of one exchange.

"I love that Georgetown students are the kind of people who
don't have to agree with someone to listen to her thoughts,"
Richards said.

She praised an unofficial student group, Hoyas for Choice.
"I'm so proud of all you are doing to make sure the students
of Georgetown have access to reproductive health care
- 10,000 condoms distributed last semester. Because of
you, someone somewhere is having safer sex."

The typical Planned Parenthood patient, she said, "is in
their 20s and makes less than $18,000. For many, we are the
only medical provider they see in a given year. Patients come
to us for birth control, breast exams, cancer screenings,
well-woman visits - and safe and legal
abortion."

Referencing the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care
Act, Richards recalled Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke's
appearance at a 2012 congressional hearing on the moral
objections raised by religious employers to the requirement.

She said Fluke became "a national heroine by standing up for
the rights of university students everywhere to get access to
birth control, Planned Parenthood mobilized thousands of
people to come to Washington and lobby, and students dressed
up as giant birth control pill packs and rallied on college
campuses."

Catholic and other religious employers' fight against being
told by the government they arrange for contraceptive
coverage even if they morally oppose such coverage has
reached the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule in June
on the case, known as Zubik v. Burwell.

"Fully one-third of the wage gains women have made since the
'60s are solely because of access to birth control. So if we
want to finally close the pay gap - we need more
access, not less," Richards said.

Members of Georgetown Right to Life complained that Richards
was dismissive of anything spoken by pro-life students. In
her remarks, she cited the Guttmacher Institute's finding
that "the majority of teenagers outside metropolitan areas
aren't getting basic information" about sex education.

A member of Georgetown Right to Life, whom Students for Life
did not name, asked her about the institute's data that
indicated that 94 percent of pregnancy services at Planned
Parenthood clinics consist of abortions, while about 6
percent are sonograms and less than 1 percent are adoption
counseling. "How can you say that when a woman walks into
your clinic she has a choice?"

"We are not the Guttmacher Institute, but that's OK,"
Richards responded. "But what I am saying actually, is that I
would really encourage you to come visit a Planned Parenthood
center. What you will find, what I believe you will find, and
you can call me if you don't, and I am serious about that, is
a health care organization that provides women the full range
of reproductive health care and preventative services."

Richards drew loud applause when she concluded, "It's really
incredible to me that a lot of the legislation that has
passed, and even some of the things I am hearing now in this
presidential campaign, are based on the idea that women are
not smart enough or able to make their own medical decisions.
Women make hard decisions every single day."

She called the recent series of videos by anti-abortion
activist David Daleiden "fraudulent," adding, "Planned
Parenthood has never sold fetal tissue and never would." The
videos show Planned Parenthood officials discussing fees
related to fetal tissue, but the organization says they are
standard reimbursement fees charged to researchers. But last
fall Richards announced the organization would no longer
accept the reimbursements.

Daleiden and his partner, Sandra Merritt, have been indicted
by a Houston grand jury for using deceptive means of
accessing employees and clinics of Planned Parenthood, and in
California, Planned Parenthood also is suing him and his
Center for Medical Progress for allegedly inciting violence
and causing an increase in threats at its clinics.

There were no outbursts outside from members of Students for
Life, who were occasionally joined by adults, including a
woman wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with "The Pill Kills."

At one point, a woman walking by announced, "Thank God for
Planned Parenthood!" A male protester shouted back, "The body
inside your body is not your body!"

Richards later tweeted to Brosnan: "You're my hero - thanks
for challenging the status quo. It was an honor to be with
you!"

That evening, Students for Life sponsored Abby Johnson, a
former Planned Parenthood clinic director who resigned in
2009 to become a pro-life activist, at the university's
Dahlgren Chapel. Johnson operates a ministry for former
abortion workers called And Then There Were None.

Johnson described her Planned Parenthood work as "one
rationalization after another," and finally quit when she saw
that her clinic's abortion quota for 2009-10 "had actually
doubled."

"To the abortion industry, if a baby is unborn, then it
magically becomes tissue ... something that is easily
discarded," she said.